PRODUCT REVIEW: 1:22.5 SCALE ROLLING STOCK
Manufacturer: Bachmann Industries, Inc., 1400 East Erie Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19124. Price: Ready-to-run 93426 Pacific Coast tank car and 93520 ET&WNC flatcar with logs $39.95each suggested list.
BACHMANN'S NARROW GAUGE rolling stock has become nothing less than a staple of large scale model railroading since its introduction six years ago. In 1992, the kit versions of those cars provided an inexpensive basis for scratchbuilding and virtually revolutionized the hobby. Now a new limited production run of boxcars, reefers, tank cars, gondolas, flatcars, stock cars, and cabooses with realistic paint and lettering schemes makes custom decoration and lettering unnecessary for many hobbyists. The models also reflect Bachmann's ongoing program of detail upgrades.
Bachmann will produce only 1,200 pieces of each roadname, a total of 36,000 cars worldwide. They have new, more realistic plastic brakewheel castings and rounded grab irons, the tank cars have metal, chemically blackened handrails, and some cars exhibit refinements in their molded woodgrain. While the manufacturer lists the scale of the rolling stock as 1:22.5, the dimensions of all but the tank car and caboose also are ideal for 30 foot cars in 1:24 scale.
The cars are entirely plastic except for a few metal screws.
As it turned out, each of our samples was black with white lettering. Bachmann molds each car in the appropriate color, then applies paint over that. The overall quality of the finish was excellent. None of the samples displayed an imperfection, the semi-gloss paint was smooth, and the lettering was clean, crisp, and opaque. Lettering even appears on the car ends. The alphabet styles, lettering information, placement, and even some car numbers matched those in Robert Sloan's Narrow Gauge Information And Lettering Guide, 4th Edition perfectly. Bachmann did its homework.
Except for the reefer (D&RGW), the rolling stock specifically represents East Tennessee & Western North Carolina prototypes but it is generic enough in appearance and easy enough to modify to suit most modelers in the large scales. If you want freight cars with authentic decoration in any of the roadnames Bachmann offers, you should be very happy with what you see.-RR
